Soldier Mihaly Dienes

* Dercsika, September 24, 1782 –†  Sátoraljaújhely, June 9, 1874 / doctor of philosophy, priest teacher, gardener ; ; He completed his high school studies in Bratislava, Magyaróvár and Tata. In October 1802 he joined the Piarist order (at that time he took the monastic name Dienes) and worked as a probationary teacher first in Kalocsa and then in Tata. In 1806–1808 he studied at the University of Pest and obtained a doctorate in humanities. After that he studied theology in Nyitra and Szentgyörgy. In the following years he was a high school teacher and headmaster in various places (Tata, Szeged, Kolozsvár, Léva, Vác, Nagykároly, Kecskemét). His last teaching position was the Szeged Lyceum, and here he dealt with the possibilities of extracting indigo of plant origin in Hungary. He pointed out the usefulness of the dyer's lye (Isatis tinctoria). When the Piarist order moved to Sátoraljaújhely in 1843, he created an area in the garden of the monastery, the so-called Nazareth Garden, where he cultivated and experimented with various exotic plants (American indigo, coffee, American grapes, sweet potatoes, Brazilian melons, sugar cane, etc.). He corresponded with János Xantus (1825–1894), a traveler and naturalist who worked in the United States of America for a long time in the 1850s. His literary work was diverse. He wrote heroic poems on historical themes, moral parables, biographical notes, but above all, the number of his articles and publications related to cultivated plants is significant.